Travelling to USA, best way to get sat nav?

rf065 · Lifetime Member Joined: Oct 10, 2005 Posts: 80

Hi,

I usually go to Florida every year and this time I fancied getting sat nav with my rental car, a convertable with Dollar at Sanford Airport.

I asked the travel company about sat nav while paying for the car & they say it is available at £45 per week. Hence my dilemma,

1. Can I hire one with Dollar when I arrive, how much do they charge?

2. No way am I paying the travel company £45 + £45 for 2 weeks hire.

3. Can I buy a florida map for my Go 700 and take that instead?

4. Is it worth buyig one from Best Buy, they seem to start at $150, and use this every year for the USA trip only?

What would you do, or are there any other options?

Russ

mikealder · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:06 pm Post subject:

Your option 3 is the best bet, at least you then own the map and can use it again and again.
Make sure you copy the drives contents to your PC BEFORE you add the map just in case - Mike

rf065 · Lifetime Member Joined: Oct 10, 2005 Posts: 80

Thanks, do they still sell maps by the state rather than the whole USA & Canada maps? Buying one that only covered Florida must be the cheapest option I would think.

Russ

mikealder · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:16 pm Post subject:

South Eastern region is probably what you want see Here and it is less cost than one weeks nav hire Wink

- Mike

Brickie64 · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:17 pm Post subject:

If you have a choice of Nav's in the USA I'd recommend you check out the Garmin units. I've tried TomTom over in the USA and they work fine but the Garmin POI's pre-installed seem a lot better than the TomTom offering.

Have a good one --- Gav
_________________
"A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible"

Garmin Nuvi 3598 + GO 720 (+USA Map Card) + NavFree for iPhone in case all else fails ;-)

rf065 · Lifetime Member Joined: Oct 10, 2005 Posts: 80

Thanks guys, I'll have a look at both options and see what i want to do.

Cheers

Russ

bmuskett · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:57 pm Post subject:

I'd go for option 3. I took my TomTom One over to California last year. Bought the Western States map. Well worth it.

rf065 · Lifetime Member Joined: Oct 10, 2005 Posts: 80

dougproctor · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:12 am Post subject:

I know - buy my TomTom 720 as it has the USA map I bought for my trip a month ago. A stunning setup. Never used a map the whole two weeks I was over there.
Doug

Hoppy · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 9:34 am Post subject:

I have just come back from Florida after a 2 week holiday I took my 520 with me with the US Maps on SD Card. It worked great I had a load of POI's that I programed in plus the ones that came with the maps and it worked a treat.

My Brother-in-law hired a GPS from Dollar at Orlando airport when we got there, it cost $200 for 2 weeks no POI's in it at all and it wasn't very user friendly.

My advice would be buy the maps for your device, I was very impressed never got me lost once. Got me to all the Parks, shops and Golf courses. It was great to be able to pre plan and see how long it would take to get somewhere.
_________________
TomTom Go 950 Live.
App 9.054
Europe v8.50
NA 2GB v8.45

rf065 · Lifetime Member Joined: Oct 10, 2005 Posts: 80

Thanks for all the replies, looks like the Maps at £29.95 on my own Go 700 will be the cheapest bet, unless dougproctor is selling his 720 for around the same, Very Happy

Thanks again,

great to hear advice from people who have actually used their TomTom abroad, and it looks like a good business for someone hiring out SatNavs as you come of the plane, undercutting dollar & the travel companies.

£45 -£50 a week to hire a SatNav? at least Dick Turpin wore a mask!

Russ

dougproctor · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 11:43 am Post subject:

Can't quite drop the price to £30 but what the heck, eh! Have a good time. It is so much easier using Sat Nav over there, you have so much more time to think about what you are doing. What - I even navigated from top to bottom of Chicago and never got lost once.
Doug

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